


Calm After the Storm

by R_S



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, Nakamaship, Post-Time Skip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-01
Updated: 2015-12-01
Packaged: 2018-05-04 10:36:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5331026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/R_S/pseuds/R_S
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the calm after a storm, sometimes wounds sting harder, deeper. Sometimes pride grows in your chest... and sometimes, you're not really quite sure what it was that happened.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Calm After the Storm

**Author's Note:**

> Been sitting on this one a while. Please enjoy!

There were pits in Sunny’s lawn. The tire swing having been snapped off, lying sadly in the wrecked grass. Main sail torn down one side, shreds of it fluttering in strong salty New World wind. Franky crouches down, lifting a heavy metal lock from a compartment under the ship’s wheel. The cyborg secures each hinge and catch, bringing his hands to his face after. The storm had been incredible. A colossal beast born out of Blue fury that churned the sea from its very beds, devouring anyone fool enough to bring challenge.

Zoro sighs up into the clear blue sky overhead, his lips upturning and closing his eye in satisfaction. He pulls his katana free to lie them in the grass side by side. Wado’s white saya is covered in goo. A greenish blood that had come from one of the Sea Kings Zoro’d cut during the storm. It happened a lot these days, on this side of the Red Line. He had been able to count on one had the Kings he’d seen in the Grand Line, but here? He hums, leaving his blade for one a moment to retrieve the katana maintenance kit from a cubby in Sunny’s main mast.

“Yohohhoooo!” Brook’s emptying his tall buckled shoes of seawater. His afro sagging damp. His cane-sword is unsheathed, the sword of a souls’ mourning reflecting back the uncovered sun coldly with barely a mark upon it. “How unexpected.” He says in the deepest drum of his voice, one skeletal hand wrapping around one of Sunny’s lead lines.

Luffy wanders onto the lawn from where he’d been defending against a marine battleship that had followed them into the storm. The marines had sunk. Good riddance. The captain looks around at the blasted deck. He seems lost, a moment, gripping tight to the straw hat that’s supposed to be on top his head. Two fresh tears shone over the crown of the hat, leaving the bent fibers sticking up at odd angles, and the red ribbon’s been torn in two. Luffy sniffs. “Nami?”

Zoro looks up from where he’s wrapped a bit of rice paper around his fingers, running it along the surface of Kitetsu’s black blade. His captain’s distress pulling at his subconscious, and he sees the Strawhat’s redheaded navigator cross the landing. She’s got a burn on her skirt, and a growing bruise down her right shoulder all the way to the woman’s right hip. But she doesn’t hesitate. Nami, dropping the perfect Clima-tact to thunk onto the pitted lawn. She’s closed the distance between her and her captain, taking his hat from him gently and sitting down right then and there in the grass with him right beside her.

Robin presses her back against the stair rails as she lowers herself down to sit. Her arms hanging limp in her lap. She watches her nakama gathering together. It was always the same, after a big fight. It didn’t matter if that fight was with the Marines, or with other pirates, or with the Blue, it always ended the same. Fight, win! Heal, fight again. That was what it meant to be a Strawhat Pirate.

“Would you care for some coffee, Robin-chwan?” Sanji’s black heeled dress shoes have scuffs all over them, left pants-leg torn to reveal sock and skin behind. He’s kneeling at her side in genuine care with his offer of refreshment, she knows, but she always wonders why he must always the last to truly rest.

“No. Thank you, Sanji.” The historian relaxes her raven haired head on the rail. “I think I’ll retire for a while. Pleasant dreams.” Hands blossom from the banister around Robin, gently grasping her own hands and shoulders and pulling herself up. She graces Sanji a beautiful smile, leaving for the woman’s rooms just up the stairs.

Chopper’s bobbing across the lawn, medical kit slinging onto the now uneven ground next to Usopp’s head. The man was out cold, a bit of blood trickling from his nose while both eyes darkened right before the little Zoan’s eyes. He twitches his blue nose, lowering the smelling salts.

“FWAAAH!!! LOOK OUT!!! LUFFY!!!!!”

“LIE STILL!” Chopper’s heavy point fist slams down into his nakama’s chest, knocking all the wind from the Strawhat sniper, and he goes limp as noodles.

Sanji sees Nami in the grass beside their captain. Luffy’s knees pulled right up to his chin, and both brown eyes on their navigator’s nimble fingers. It did not happen often, that Luffy’s treasured straw hat would be damaged. Sanji can only really remember one or maybe two other times. Nami had repaired the damages afterwards, fingers taking hold of delicate straw, reweaving Luffy’s dreams back together for him every time.

With the sun pushing at the cook’s blonde locks, Sanji returns to the kitchen. Everyone’s going to be hungry after they’ve licked their wounds. Maybe he’ll make a feast to celebrate their victory against the most dangerous sea in the world? That sounded just the thing. Today.

Just one more day of many that came before, and will continue to count in the future, on this great sea of adventure.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
